Etymologically
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дело

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Pronunciation

  • [ˈdʲeɫə][1]

Forms

де́ло (délo) n inan (genitive де́ла, nominative plural дела́, genitive plural дел, relational adjective делово́й, diminutive де́льце)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old East Slavic дѣло (dělo), from Proto-Slavic *dělo (“work, deed”).[1][2][3] The word is common Slavic: Old Church Slavonic дѣло (dělo) (with the old s-stem genitive дѣлесе (dělese)), Ukrainian діло (dilo), Bulgarian дело (delo), Serbo-Croatian djelo, Slovene delo, Czech dílo, Polish dzieło beside działo, and Upper Sorbian dźěło.[2][4] The ⟨ѣ⟩ of the old spelling became /e/ in Russian, while Ukrainian and Polish show other vowels.[5]

The noun is formed with the suffix ⟨-lo⟩ from the verb *děti (“to put, do”) (деть), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, do”).[4][6][1] Its closest parallels in form are Lithuanian padėlỹs (“nest egg”) and priedėlė̃ (“appendix”).[2][4] A second view connects it with dailė̃ (“art, craft”), dailùs (“graceful”) and Latvian dailš (“beautiful”), comparing Old Church Slavonic дрѣводѣля (drěvodělja, “carpenter”) with ratadailė (“wheelwright”);[2][7] Vasmer allows it, following Būga, Brandt and Berneker, but Sławski finds it unconvincing.[4] Shaposhnikov gives both views, comparing Proto-Germanic *dāliz (“easy”) for the first.[7] The root is the same as in English do and deed and in Sanskrit दधाति (dadhāti, “puts”).[1]

The verb делать was made from the noun.[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Ostromir Gospel of 1056–1057 has the word in the sense “deed, act”: „мънога дѣла добра явихъ вамъ отъ отьца моего; за кое дѣло камение на мя мещете?” “many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which work do you stone me?”.[8] The Izbornik of 1076 uses it for work, labour: „аще на дѣлѣ юси” “if you are at work”, translating Greek ἐπ’ ἐργαστηρίῳ.[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Russian already had a wide range of senses: work and labour, the making of something (a 1389 testament leaves an icon „парамшина дѣла” “of Paramsha's work”), building, a deed carried out, and the product of work.[9] Sreznevsky's materials add “battle”, “lawsuit, dispute”, “force, energy” and “merit”.[10] The 18th century used it for work and service, with phrases such as быть у дел “to hold office”.[11]

From the sense “court proceedings, legal case” Russian made дело “a file of documents”, found already in Gogol's Dead Souls (1842); Bulgarian дело (delo, “file of documents”) is probably from Russian in this sense.[4] The colloquial дело — табак! “things are bad” is, Vinogradov says, of argot origin, usually linked with the language of the Volga boatmen.[12] Modern slang uses дело! for “agreed!” and дело for a drinking session.[13] In some dialects дело works as an adverb “so, right”.[14]

Timeline

  • 1056–1057 – дѣла “works, deeds” in the Ostromir Gospel.[8]
  • 1076 – на дѣлѣ “at work” in the Izbornik of 1076.[9]
  • 1125 – вьсе дѣло “all the work” of copying, in a colophon of the Mstislav Gospel.[9]
  • 1389 – парамшина дѣла “of Paramsha's work” of an icon, in a Moscow testament.[9]
  • 1842 – дело “file of documents” in Gogol's Dead Souls.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. work, occupation, activity: заниматься делом “to be busy with something useful”.[15][16]
  2. Deeds as opposed to words; practice as opposed to theory.[17][18]
  3. (of someone or something) One's concern, what falls within one's duties: bringing up children is дело семьи.[15]
  4. A need, an errand: зайти по делу “to drop in on business”.[15][19]
  5. (colloquial) Something sensible or worthwhile: говорить дело “to talk sense”.[15]
  6. A field of knowledge or work: военное дело “military science”.[7][1]
  7. An enterprise, a business.[7][1]
  8. An event, circumstance or state of affairs: в чём дело? “what's the matter?”.[7][1]
  9. (law) A case, proceedings in court; a file of documents on a matter, a dossier.[19][1]

Word family

  • делать
  • деловой
  • дельный
  • деловитый
  • делец
  • бездельник
  • полдела
  • дельце
  • деть
  • деятель
  • Old East Slavic дѣло (dělo)

Usage notes

A different noun дело “cannon”, recorded in the 16th–17th centuries, came from Polish działo (“cannon”) through the south-west.[20][21] Colloquial speech has the genitive plural делов beside дел.[22] Set phrases include то и дело “every now and then” and делу время, потехе час “business before pleasure”.[1][19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 496–497
  3. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 103
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shansky, N. M.; Zhuravlev, A. F. (eds.) (1963–2007), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], vols. 1–10 (A–M), Moskva: Izdatel'stvo Moskovskogo universiteta, p. 5, s.v. дело
  5. ^ a b Tsyganenko, G. P. (1989), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь русского языка], 2nd ed., Kiev: Radjans'ka škola, p. s.v. дело
  6. ^ Shansky, N. M.; Bobrova, T. A. (2004), Škol'nyj ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Школьный этимологический словарь русского языка], 7th ed., Moskva: Drofa, p. s.v. дело
  7. ^ a b c d e Shaposhnikov, A. K. (2010), Ètimologičeskij slovar' sovremennogo russkogo jazyka [Этимологический словарь современного русского языка], 2 vols., Moskva: Flinta / Nauka, p. 1, 215
  8. ^ a b Vinogradova, V. L. (1965–1984), Slovar'-spravočnik «Slova o polku Igoreve» [Словарь-справочник «Слова о полку Игореве»], 6 vols., Moskva / Leningrad: Nauka, p. s.v. дѣло
  9. ^ a b c d e Avanesov, R. I. et al. (eds.) (1988–), Slovar' drevnerusskogo jazyka (XI–XIV vv.) [Словарь древнерусского языка (XI–XIV вв.)], vols. 1–13, Moskva: Russkij jazyk / Azbukovnik, p. 3, 158
  10. ^ Sreznevsky, I. I. (1893–1912), Materialy dlja slovarja drevne-russkago jazyka po pis'mennym pamjatnikam [Материалы для словаря древнерусского языка по письменным памятникам], 3 vols., Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja Akademija nauk, p. 1, s.v. дѣло
  11. ^ Sorokin, Yu. S. et al. (eds.) (1984–), Slovar' russkogo jazyka XVIII veka [Словарь русского языка XVIII века], vols. 1–24, Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. s.v. дело
  12. ^ Vinogradov, V. V. (1999), Istorija slov [История слов], Moskva: Institut russkogo jazyka RAN (online edition, etymolog.ruslang.ru), p. s.v. дело
  13. ^ Elistratov, V. S. (2000), Slovar' russkogo argo [Словарь русского арго], Moskva: Russkie slovari, p. s.v. дело
  14. ^ Filin, F. P.; Sorokoletov, F. P.; Myznikov, S. A. (eds.) (1965–), Slovar' russkix narodnyx govorov [Словарь русских народных говоров], vols. 1–51, Moskva / Leningrad / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. 7, 343
  15. ^ a b c d Ozhegov, S. I.; Shvedova, N. Yu. (1997), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4th ed., Moskva: Azbukovnik, p. s.v. дело
  16. ^ Evgen'eva, A. P. (ed.) (1981–1984), Slovar' russkogo jazyka v četyrex tomax [Словарь русского языка в 4 тт.] (MAS), 2nd ed., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. s.v. дело
  17. ^ Efremova, T. F. (2000), Novyj slovar' russkogo jazyka. Tolkovo-slovoobrazovatel'nyj [Новый словарь русского языка. Толково-словообразовательный], 2 vols., Moskva: Russkij jazyk, p. s.v. дело
  18. ^ Gorbanevsky, M. N.; Gerd, A. S. et al. (eds.) (2004–), Bol'šoj akademičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka [Большой академический словарь русского языка], Moskva / Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka, p. 4, s.v. дело
  19. ^ a b c Ushakov, D. N. (ed.) (1935–1940), Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Толковый словарь русского языка], 4 vols., Moskva: Sovetskaja ènciklopedija / OGIZ, p. s.v. дело
  20. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 497
  21. ^ Anikin, A. E. (2007–2021), Russkij ètimologičeskij slovar' [Русский этимологический словарь], vols. 1–13 (A–D), Moskva: Rukopisnye pamjatniki Drevnej Rusi / Institut russkogo jazyka RAN, p. 13, 176
  22. ^ Kuznetsov, S. A. (ed.) (1998), Bol'šoj tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Большой толковый словарь русского языка], Sankt-Peterburg: Norint, p. s.v. дело